Ivanka Trump received a rousing welcome at Morocco as she landed there for a three-day visit to that country. The purpose of the visit is to promote the economic empowerment of women in developing countries. She was received at the airport by Morocco’s Princess Lalla Meryem, Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and other officials at the capital city of Rabat.
Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald, is also a White House adviser. Her mission is to promote the U.S. government’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative globally, which she spearheads. She has been travelling widely to different countries to espouse this cause. The program, launched in February this year, targets to help 50 million women in developing nations to advance economically. Sub-Saharan Africa and South America are slotted as the priority areas of this US mission. The Millennium Challenge Corp., an independent U.S. foreign aid agency is working with the Moroccan government to promote economic growth, reduce poverty and strengthen institutions.
Recently, Morocco updated land rights laws, which is alleged to have adversely affected women by tweaking their inheritance rights. Ivanska Trump is reported to be taking up such issues with the Moroccan authorities and press for granting them the same rights as men since women can create wealth by inheriting or owning land or other property.
After 10 years of advocacy, on July 2018 ethnic Sulaliyyate women of Morocco finally got equal land rights. As a result, a State-run lottery distributed some 860 plots of land equally among men and women, as part of ongoing efforts to privatize land throughout the country.
Less than 42% of the land in Morocco is held collectively by ethnic tribes and the shares in the communal lands were traditionally passed down to male family members aged over 16. Women couldn’t inherit land according to tribal law. This put single women, widows, divorcées and those without sons at a particularly disadvantage position. This year women and men benefited from equal shares of land through the July lottery. The Sulaliyyate also demand equal financial compensation for land taken by the Government for privatization purposes.
